Ohio's medical marijuana program marks a pivotal moment as Eastlake's Buckeye Relief LLC becomes the first large cultivator to plant cannabis seeds.

The Ohio Department of Commerce confirmed that Buckeye Relief, owned by Andy Rayburn, completed its state inspection last week and received its certificate of operation on Friday, July 27. The cultivator then announced on Monday, July 30, that it is beginning planting immediately.

"It took an amazing effort from our team at Buckeye Relief, the city of Eastlake, our construction partner, and local unions to build a facility of this quality and capability in less than eight months," said Rayburn, Buckeye Relief CEO, in a statement. "Our BR team is already focused on planting and shifting our efforts to producing medicine of the highest quality for Ohio's patients."

The company declined comment on how or where it procured its seeds from.

Buckeye Relief expects it will have marijuana ready for testing by November or early December. At that rate, it's expected that the first harvests will be in products available for consumers in January.

The grow op, which happened to receive the state's highest score in its application seeking a license to grow marijuana, is among a total of 26 growers today.

The company also applied for dispensary and processing licenses. Having all three would make it a vertically integrated business. The firm was denied a dispensary license. And processor licenses have not yet been awarded.

There are 13 Level I and 13 Level II cultivators in total. There were originally going to be 12 of each, but the state approved two others earlier this year: PharmaCann Ohio LLC was approved at the Level I tier to operate a facility in Buckeye Lake, while Pure OH LLC won an appeal to earn a Level II licenses for a smaller grow operation south of Youngstown in East Palestine.

Level II cultivator FN Group Holdings LLC of Ravenna was the first grower OK'd by the state to plant seeds. It received its certificate of operation on June 29.

It was followed by Level II cultivator Agri-Med Ohio LLC, which is operating a facility in Langsville in Meigs County and received its certificate of operation on July 17.

Other grow ops have had inspections, but didn't pass those to earn certificates of operation.

There are currently eight companies slated for inspections in August, said Stephanie Gostomski, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Commerce. But whether they're OK'd to start growing depends on whether they pass inspections. Gostomski emphasized inspections aren't being pushed through despite the Sept. 8 deadline originally set for a program to be in place as established by HB 523.

"The state more than anybody understands the significance around that Sept. 8 date, but at the same time, we have to build a patient-centered, safe industry, and these inspections are a critical component to make sure products on the shelves are safe," Gostomski said.

While that's the date the state has been targeting for marijuana to be on shelves and available for patients, there are no repercussions for missing that. The program will be slow to kick up because the surrounding industry has been slow to come together, a topic Crain's explored in March.

A Level I cultivator planting now is significant for the program because those entities can have up to more than eight times as much grow space as Level II businesses. Level I cultivators can grow in up to 25,000 square feet of growing space, versus just 3,000 square feet of space at Level II.